It is often tedious and frustrating to be able to accurately hang wall mounted objects such as a picture frame. Currently, hanging objects such as a picture frame in a stable fixed manner has often required the use of two nails that must be inserted at identical heights into a wall and be correctly spaced apart from one another in order to receive hooks and/or wires from the back of the picture frame. Measuring the precise locations where the nails are to be inserted often requires careful and time consuming measurements and/or the necessity of having a second person to stand behind the installer to make sure the mounting is correctly done. Frustration can be a common result where errors cause the installer to start the process over a second and even a third time. Often the installer goes through a trial and error approach where extra holes are punched into the wall that can be unsightly and often need to be separately repaired.
Over the years many devices have been proposed. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,816,366 to Barlow; U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,566 to Mathews; U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,510 to Radecki; U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,466 to Leonard; U.S. Pat. No. 4,648,185 to Brandimarte; U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,057 to Hoenig, Sr.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,573 to Ehling et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,362 to Miodragovic. Also see for example, United Kingdon Patent Specification No. 1,445,271 to Bryen, and Johnson Level and Tool Web pages for product entitled: Mark-It.
While attempts have been made to try to be able to make a picture leveling device, none of these proposed devices singularly or in combination allow for hanging various sized objects in an easy and efficient manner. For example, all of the proposed devices appear to be limited to only being able to show calibration with a single unit such as showing inches which fails to take into the necessity of being able to measure in other units such as the metric system and the like. Most of these devices limit any leveling to be in one or at most two fixed planes, where the bubble type levels must be perpendicular to one another, which would eliminate any versatility required for planes having different degree requirements. Most of these proposed devices are variations on common thin planar shaped rulers that must be held against a wall, which would be extremely difficult and uncomfortable to the installer since the thin edges of the ruler would be difficult to handle in addition to having the installer hold the thin ruler devices with their arms being raised and/or extended outward. Some of the proposed devices such as Radecki ""510, Leonard ""466 and Hoenig, Sr. ""057 require T type shapes and additional mounting paraphernalia that would add to the difficulty of mounting objects, and these devices because of the their unusual shapes would be difficult to be stored when not being used. In addition many of these devices can be heavy to use and difficult to handle and would have limited versatility for being able to hang many types of wall mountable objects.
A primary objective of the invention is to provide a measuring and leveling tool for allowing objects such as picture frames, mirrors and paintings to be correctly and properly aligned for mounting on a wall that can be easily and quickly be done by a single installer.
A secondary objective of the invention is to provide a measuring and leveling tool for allowing objects such as picture frames, mirrors and paintings to be correctly and properly aligned for mounting on a wall that eliminates prior trial and error techniques and eliminates extra damage to the walls by not making any unnecessary hole punches into the wall.
A third objective of the invention is to provide a measuring and leveling tool for allowing objects such as picture frames, mirrors and paintings to be correctly and properly aligned for mounting on a wall that can be done in substantially less time than well known prior techniques.
A fourth objective of the invention is to a measuring and leveling tool for allowing objects such as picture frames, mirrors and paintings to be correctly and properly aligned for mounting on a wall that uses a device that is lighter, easier to use and handle and is more versatile than prior proposed devices.
A fifth objective of the invention is to a measuring and leveling tool for allowing objects such as picture frames, mirrors and paintings to be correctly and properly aligned for mounting on a wall that uses a non planar elongated device that is easy to grip and handle by an installer.
A sixth objective of the invention is to a measuring and leveling tool for allowing objects such as picture frames, mirrors and paintings to be correctly and properly aligned for mounting on a wall that can use different degree unit representations such as both inches and the metric system on a single device for greater versatility.
A seventh objective of the invention is to a measuring and leveling tool for allowing objects such as picture frames, mirrors and paintings to be correctly and properly aligned for mounting on a wall that can use allow for leveling along plural planes from horizontal levelers to vertical levelers and can be adjustable to any degrees therebetween.
Embodiments include carriage type assemblies that can fit over elongated measuring bodies, where each carriage can have front walls with clips that allow leveling gauges such as bubble gauges to be interchangeably mounted thereon in different positions as needed. The carriage assemblies can include depressible switches that can easily lock the carriage assemblies in place. End caps on the measuring body further prevent the carriage assemblies from sliding off, and can be removed for allowing hollow interior portions of the measuring body to be used for storage. The measuring bodies can have indicia across, one or more exterior faces, and can include different measuring units such as but not limited to metric, inches, and the like.
Another embodiment allows for the carriage assemblies to have rotatable outer faces so that leveling gauges mounted thereon can be rotated to selected positions.
Further objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of a presently preferred embodiment which is illustrated schematically in the accompanying drawings.